ABSTRACT
Public thinking about freedom of speech in universities, and in society more widely, is deeply impoverished because it only considers freedom of speech as a binary: one either supports it or wishes to restrict it. This chapter moves beyond this binary by exploring the diversity of thought, historically and in modern times, about this issue. It begins by considering freedom of speech issues within religious traditions, including Islam. Then it examines the ideas of thinkers with very different views about freedom of speech, notably Eric Barendt, Judith Butler, Ronald Dworkin, Khalid Abou El Fadl, Stanley Fish, Mohammad Hashim Kamali, Lynn Hankinson Nelson, Immanuel Kant, Charles Sanders Peirce, Intisar Rabb, Paul Ricoeur, Sarah Sorial, Baruch Spinoza, David Strauss, John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Waldron. The chapter also introduces a new paradigm for thinking about how to handle freedom of speech issues practically. The fourfold model includes four approaches to handling debates, discussions and other speech events: the liberal, the guarded liberal, the libertarian and the no-platforming approaches. The chapter advocates that universities use these approaches flexibly and transparently to set the parameters for different events, but also advises that they should pursue the liberal approach as far as possible.
